Essential Components for our PCP-PIRE Website

• A home page with:
  • Lots of nice pictures (Andy Kilmer). It also requires some maps and satellite images (Aldo Rincon)
  • The goals or a project summary of the PCP briefly stated (a paragraph or two) with a link to a PDF of the full proposal (for people that want to read it) (Andy Kilmer).
  • A simple design. It should be made accessible to a wide range of audiences. Perhaps it should be bilingual? (Andy Kilmer).
  • The home page should provide links to other pages for certain interest groups (eg undergrads, postdocs, and the general public) and pages in Espanol (Andy Kilmer). Should include links or additional information for non-traditional visitors interested in any component (basic concepts, methodologies, etc) Aldo Rincon.
  • The logos of participating universities, NSF, and perhaps our own logo (if we make one) (Andy Kilmer)
  • Home Pages often have a column for current events and news related to the project. This is good when it is kept updated, but can be an obvious sign of neglect if latest events are all dated well before whenever you are viewing the page. This gives the impression that either no one is updating the site, or not much is going on with the project. (Alex Hastings)
  • A link to the home page should always be visible, and be in an un-moving location on the screen. (Alex Hastings)
• A page or a section of a page for recruitment (Andy Kilmer). PCP-PIRE offers interational fieldwork opportunities, for this reason, field activities should be nicely explained and included. Additionally, mentoring activities are really attractive for undergraduate students and volunteers, for this reason a detailed acivities chart could be really useful (application deadlines and requirements could be insufficient for recruitment purposes) (Aldo Rincon)
  • Since we are looking for people to join in on the project, the website should have very obvious ways to find out how to get involved. When there are separate links for all levels involved (i.e. undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral) this becomes inviting and gives the impression that the group is well-organized. (Alex Hastings)
• 
  
• Perhaps a page or a section which highlights students and faculty working on the project (some sites I looked at used blogs, others had pages which dealt with research related to the project). One site had some nice pictures you could click on to figure out what individuals were doing. (Andy Kilmer)
• Current Research is a must! Projects which highlight the research being undertaken AND update it frequently (at least monthly) show active research and a general interest in communicating findings to a broader audience. It would be fantastic to have a current research page with links to all the different related projects involved including photos of the work and the people doing it. (Alex Hastings)
• Current participants. Information about people working in the project divided into PI's, Graduated students, Undergraduated students and collaborators or maybe by subject for example Vertebrate paleontology, Paleobotany, etc. This section should include at least affiliation, e-mail address and role in the project. Ideally it should also include a short description of current research, publications and links to personal or other academic websites. (Luz Helena Oviedo).

• Like Speciation in Patagonia's website, we should have a menu bar that lists the following: Investigators, Current Students, Research Projects, Participating Institutions, Maps, Proposal (both original version and condensed version for potential students to read), Publications, Application for Prospective students... etc. I liked how when you put your mouse over the item in the menu it gave bulleted info (Carson Phillips).
• Pictures are critical! Photographs of students and workers in the field and lab make a website infinitely more engaging than ones with text and diagrams. When students can log on and see other students like them looking happy doing work for the project, they will feel much better about it themselves. (Alex Hastings)
• Ideally a website will answer all questions you may have about the program within the website itself (i.e. not rely on links to other websites which won’t necessarily be kept up to date). (Alex Hastings)
• A blog - Once a week the students (of the same or different projects) should blog about their daily activities, finds, etc. In my Health/Science Communication journalism course scientists are underrepresented in blogging on the internet. This is a great way to get our research and science to the rest of the public, especially journalists. (Carson Phillips)
  • You have to be careful with blogs, though. It looks bad if the blog isn't updated relatively regularly. (Andy Kilmer)

• Language Option: Since our goal is to include researchers in Panama there should be an option to click on for the website to be in spanish (Carson Phillips)
  • I agree with Carson’s comment on being bilingual. Regardless of how we do it, the site needs to be available in both English and Spanish. We could also do something like Catalina’s website which has both English and Spanish on the same page. However, this may become a nuisance to the non-Spanish speaking public, I’m not sure. (Alex Hastings)

• Outreach/Public interest section. Information about the project for the general public. Description, pictures and links of broader impacts activities and media reports. Include the option to download brochures or any communication product like in the Amazon-PIRE website (Luz Helena Oviedo).

• Countries involved. General information or posted links about Panama, USA and partner institutions (STRI, UF). (Luz Helena Oviedo).
• Publications. Provide access in PDF to reference papers and published papers by the project.

• Activities: Because PIRE-PCP encompasses several multi-disciplinary research and educational activities, those should be accessible to visitors in order to maximize the broader impacts and outreach.
• TARGET AUDIENCE
• Component (your name)
• Component (your name)
• Component (your name)